Fablingo / Fablingo Arabic / Level A1
Episode 27 · The coffee is hot
Duration: 5:07
▶ 17 November
After this lesson you can:
I can make a whole sentence with no word for "is."
In this episode
Umm Nadia's café gives Sam a room full of things to describe — and the astonishing gift that describing them needs no verb. He builds sentence after sentence about the hot coffee, the cold tea, the new book, and — glancing at the whole warm room — *anā saʿīd*, "I'm happy," which for once is exactly true.
Welcome back to the Book Quarter. Sam has learned to read the letters, and he's starting to collect words. But knowing words is like having a pile of bricks — you need a way to build them into a house.
Today, Sam discovers one of the most beautiful secrets of Arabic. To say 'the door is open' or 'the coffee is hot', you don't need a word for 'is'. You just put the two words side by side. The door, open. The coffee, hot.
البَيْتُ كَبير.
البَيْتُ كَبير. — The house is big. · al-BAY-tu ka-BEER
Umm Nadia loves this old building. She just said البَيْتُ كَبير. Notice what's missing? There's no 'is'. Just البَيْتُ, the house, and كَبير, big.
البَيْتُ كَبير. — The house is big. · al-BAY-tu ka-BEER
The word for big is كَبير. Try saying it with me... كَبير. And the whole sentence... البَيْتُ كَبير.
البَيْتُ كَبير. — The house is big. · al-BAY-tu ka-BEER
البَيْتُ كَبير.
البَيْتُ كَبير. — The house is big. · al-BAY-tu ka-BEER
تَفَضَّل. القَهْوةُ ساخِنة.
القَهْوةُ ساخِنة. — The coffee is hot. · al-QAH-wa-tu SAA-khi-na
Umm Nadia warns him: القَهْوةُ ساخِنة. We learned this last week! Because coffee, القَهْوة, is a 'she' word, the word for hot has to match. So it's not just ساخِن, it's ساخِنة.
القَهْوةُ ساخِنة. — The coffee is hot. · al-QAH-wa-tu SAA-khi-na
Say it with me. Pay attention to that soft breathy sound in the middle. القَهْوةُ ساخِنة. Once more... القَهْوةُ ساخِنة.
القَهْوةُ ساخِنة. — The coffee is hot. · al-QAH-wa-tu SAA-khi-na
الشّايُ بارِد.
الشّايُ بارِد. — The tea is cold. · ash-SHAA-yu BAA-rid
Hajj Mahmoud prefers his summer drink. He says الشّايُ بارِد. The tea is cold. Notice that الشّايُ is a 'he' word, so there's no extra ending on بارِد.
الشّايُ بارِد. — The tea is cold. · ash-SHAA-yu BAA-rid
Let's practice the word for cold: بارِد. Try it with me... بارِد. Now the full sentence... الشّايُ بارِد.
الشّايُ بارِد. — The tea is cold. · ash-SHAA-yu BAA-rid
الشّايُ بارِد... القَهْوةُ ساخِنة.
Look at how much we can say without a single verb. We have البَيْتُ كَبير. The house is big. We have القَهْوةُ ساخِنة. The coffee is hot. And we have الشّايُ بارِد. The tea is cold.
الكِتابُ جَديد.
الكِتابُ جَديد. — The book is new. · al-ki-TAA-bu ja-DEED
Ustadh Farid brought Sam a gift for his studies. He says الكِتابُ جَديد. The book is new. We know كِتاب from the calligraphy table.
الكِتابُ جَديد. — The book is new. · al-ki-TAA-bu ja-DEED
The word for new is جَديد. It has that nice deep 'j' sound. Say it with me... جَديد. And now the whole phrase... الكِتابُ جَديد.
الكِتابُ جَديد. — The book is new. · al-ki-TAA-bu ja-DEED
شُكْراً، أُسْتاذ. الكِتابُ جَديد.
الكِتابُ جَديد. — The book is new. · al-ki-TAA-bu ja-DEED
أنا سَعيد.
أنا سَعيد. — I'm happy. · A-na sa-ʿEED
Sam just built his most important sentence yet. أنا سَعيد. I am happy. It works the exact same way. أنا means I. سَعيد means happy. Put them together, and you have 'I am happy'.
أنا سَعيد. — I'm happy. · A-na sa-ʿEED
The word for happy is سَعيد. Listen for the deep 'ayn sound in the middle. سَعيد. Try it with me... أنا سَعيد. One more time... أنا سَعيد.
أنا سَعيد. — I'm happy. · A-na sa-ʿEED
أنا سَعيدة أَيضاً يا سام.
Did you catch what Umm Nadia added? She is a woman, so she says أنا سَعيدة. She put the little 'a' ending on it, just like we did for the hot coffee. But for Sam, it's just أنا سَعيد.
Look at all these beautiful sentences we can build now. We have البَيْتُ كَبير. The house is big. القَهْوةُ ساخِنة. The coffee is hot. الشّايُ بارِد. The tea is cold. الكِتابُ جَديد. The book is new. And of course... أنا سَعيد. I am happy.
Sam has a new notebook, new words, and a place he actually likes. But just as he opens the book to write, the café door swings open, and someone unexpected walks in. We'll find out who next time! Remember, we post new lessons every Tuesday and Friday. See you in the Quarter!
Vocabulary
| Phrase | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|
| البَيْتُ كَبير. | The house is big. | |
| القَهْوةُ ساخِنة. | The coffee is hot. | |
| الشّايُ بارِد. | The tea is cold. | |
| الكِتابُ جَديد. | The book is new. | |
| أنا سَعيد. | I'm happy. |
Grammar in this lesson
the season's spine — the nominal sentence has NO verb "to be." Put the thing and its description side by side and you have a sentence: *al-baytu kabīr* = literally "the-house big," and that *is* "the house is big." Subject first (with *al-*, ending *-u*), description second. *(Salma: "You'll keep waiting for the word for 'is.' It never comes. That's the whole trick.")* The *ʿ* in *saʿīd* is the ʿayn — a tight squeeze in the throat, a sound, not a gap. · al-bayt, sākhin/sākhina, bārid, jadīd, saʿīd, ash-shāy.